Most dogs need to be kept entertained or they get bored and possibly even destructive.
Scrappy is no exception, but luckily he’s not a destructive dog (apart from the odd occasion before we left…he found a ball of wool I’d left lying around and had a fantastic time unravelling it all and looked like butter wouldn’t melt when I found what he’d done!)
Scrappy has always had a large basket full of toys available to him so he can keep himself amused.
They ranged from squeaky balls to hard rubber chews with bells in, to soft plush toys that he could bite on and throw around.
As we are short on space onboard, we couldn’t bring all of them with us (but I tried!).
Scrappy is lucky enough to have his very own cupboard on board (which is more than Dave gets!) that we’ve filled with toys, food, outfits (yes!), hot weather gear (more on that in another blog post) and other bits and pieces too.
Most days we make the trip to shore for Scrappy to have a long walk which tires him out well. He’s normally fast asleep in his bed less than ten minutes after we get back to the boat!
For the days we can’t get to the shore we have to be a little bit more inventive.
If he can’t get physical exercise, we try to challenge him mentally. This generally means playing ball with him then hiding them (or some food) for him to find.
Our favourite challenge is to ask him to sit outside or in the bedroom while we make a ‘Scooby Snack Trail’. He absolutely LOVES playing that!
We hide treats (normally the kibble he eats for breakfast and dinner) all over the boat; behind cushions, under the seats, on top of his house, in his bed… (wherever we can!) and then let him loose!
You can HEAR his nose working on overdrive as he sniffs every last treat out!
Once they’re all gone he does another lap or two of the boat JUST to make sure there are definitely none left!
Another thing he loves to do is chase a laser on the floor. He’s half dog, half cat I think!
We bought a push button laser shaped like a mouse that we shine onto the floor for him to chase from one end of the boat to the other. Watch this video to see what I mean!
It’s great fun for him and also for us to watch!
How do you entertain your dog onboard?